Madeira working to increase communication efforts

A yard sign promoting Girls Night Out is displayed outside the Madeira city building. The city of Madeira has been brainstorming ways to have better communication with its residents.(Photo: Marika Lee/ The Community Press)

To improve its communication with residents, the city of Madeira is considering joining Facebook.

Madeira City Council has been brainstorming ideas for ways to better communicate with residents. Members of council have suggested signs and paper communication, but a popular idea is the city venturing onto social media.

City Manager Tom Moeller said the city already has a social media policy in place because the Madeira Police Department has a Facebook page, but Assistant City Manager Amanda Zimmerlin created an expanded one for the city.

Zimmerlin also drafted a communication plan for the city, based on what the city already has and what the council has previously discussed. The city has five listservs, a newsletter and signs that are commonly used. Zimmerlin said there are also communication functions on the website the city is not using.

“If you’re going to meet people where they are, Facebook is probably the best place to start and then go from there,” Zimmerlin said.

Zimmerlin said she met with Blue Ash’s Public Relations Coordinator Emily Shaffer to talk about communication and social media use. The city of Blue Ash has a Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channel.

Councilwoman Traci Theis, who is the chair of the Senior Commission, said Facebook would be a good platform to reach the most residents because many seniors in the community are already using it. About 16 percent of the population of Madeira is 65-years-old or older, according to the US Census.

Zimmerlin said the social media policy will outline what the city would post and what would be considered primary and secondary information for residents.

The Madeira Police Department’s Facebook page has about 2,700 likes and received increased traffic recently because of a virtual ride along done by Lt. Jeff Hagy. For about an hour on Sunday, Nov. 23, he posted information and photos of what he was doing and what calls he responded to.

Theis brought up the virtual ride along to congratulate the department for coming up with a new idea that went over well with residents on Facebook. Others did not view it as positively.

“I think it is something we should take and discuss. I don’t think it is 100 percent all good. There was some negative there too,” Councilman Kenneth Born said.

Police Chief Frank Maupin said all the information that was posted was public records that a member of the public could access. Born said he was concerned about the department pushing out the information and making it more accessible to the public.

City Solicitor Bob Malloy raised concerns about a social media page opening two-way communication that could led to negative comments about the city.

“Good, bad or indifferent, I encourage two-way communication. As a representative of the community I want to know what the community thinks,” Theis said.

Zimmerlin said how the city will handle negative comments will be outlined in the social media policy and she is looking into software to archive postings.

“We need to get started and then we can start fine tuning,” Councilwoman Nancy Spencer said.

Zimmerlin’s social media and communication plans were presented as drafts. Council will discussing them further and possibly voting on them at a later meeting.